Stephen Herriot recently took up his post as head of operations with Procurement for Housing (PfH) Scotland, the national procurement service for social landlords across Scotland.

In his new role, Stephen will provide procurement and consultancy services to Scotland’s 187 housing associations, co-operatives and council landlords. This includes tender support, spend analysis and advice to support social landlords’ compliance with new public procurement regulations.

Stephen has over 20 years of experience in supply chain management in the public and private sectors. He has joined from Babcock International Group, a FTSE100 multi-national engineering services company that specialises in the defence, oil, gas and renewable energy sectors. Before that, Stephen worked in commercial and procurement positions at Scottish Water and engineering and waste company Lanes Group.

PfH Scotland was set up to help Scottish social landlords get better value for money from the estimated £900m they spend on goods and services every year. Last year 36 housing associations and councils purchased supplies and services through PfH Scotland frameworks. PfH Scotland’s members collectively manage over 55 per cent of the social housing stock in Scotland.

Stephen said: “Over the next two years, housing associations, councils and co-operatives in Scotland will have to comply with a whole host of new public procurement regulations. The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act came into effect in April 2016 and housing providers have just two years to adhere to the new regulatory landscape which also includes three new EU procurement directives.”

He added, “On top of this, the Scottish Housing Regulator is focussing increasingly on the value for money being delivered by the sector. PfH Scotland is already assisting many Scottish housing associations to adjust to this new operating environment and we’re looking forward to extending this support across the sector over the coming years. PfH Scotland will be developing a series of new procurement frameworks specifically for Scottish social landlords.”

PfH Scotland was set up to help Scottish social landlords get better value for money from the estimated £900m they spend on goods and services every year. Last year 36 housing associations and councils purchased supplies and services through PfH Scotland frameworks. PfH Scotland’s members collectively manage over 55 per cent of the social housing stock in Scotland.